Fide accused of prejudice against Russia while GM Lagno withdraws from the Indian tournament, receives facts by other players – Firstpost

The Grand Master of Russian chess Kateryna Lagno accused the International Federation of Chess, Fide, of bias against his nationality, which led to his decision to withdraw from the Fide Women’s Grand Prix India 2025 in Pune.

FIDE had previously said that Lagno with the international control Sara Khadem in Spain withdrew from the failure tournament in India for “personal reasons”, however, the first has now demystified the explanation.

Lagno claims that Fide is a bias against Russian players

In a letter written to the president of Fide Arkady Dvorkovich and published on Facebook by the friend and International Master Lilit Mkrtchian de Lagno, the Russian director general said that she had been insulted and humiliated by the jury to the most beautiful female game Fide in Monaco because they did not give him the most beautiful game.

Lagno said that she had “enough failure skills” to know that her game deserved the prize for the most beautiful game, but said that the jury had chosen otherwise because the price “could not simply go to a Russian player”.

Here is the complete letter from Lagno to Dvorkovich.

Dear Arkadiy Vladimirivich,

During the Monaco stadium in the Grande Priix des Femmes, a very unpleasant incident occurred. There was a special prize for the most beautiful game in the tournament. In turn 4, I played and won one of the best games in my career against Elizabeth Paehtz. It was both Hi quality and very spectacular.

Unfortunately, I could not take advantage of this victory and spoiled the advance of the tournament at the end.

However, during the closing ceremony, I was still in a good humor awaiting impatiently the presentation of the price of beauty.

At my shock and my disappointment, he was awarded to the Kosteniuk-Tan Zhongyi game. I think I have enough failure skills to assess both my game and the game winner. Yes, Aleksandra played well, but it was spectacular only in the sense that Black (Tan Zhongyi) made a completely low sacrifice, and White had a number of winning possibilities with each movement.

Since 2 members (out of 3) of the jury are very competent players (Zurab Azmaiprashvili and Dana Reiznice), I cannot see their decision other than politically biased. The price “could not” go from the torus player, and due to the lack of really big games, they chose a game that seems at least spectacular.

As I said, I find this decision insulting and humiliating and taking into account this, I refuse to play my last stage in Grand Prix in India.

My apologies to fans and organizers of chess from the Indian Grand Prix.

Sincerely,

Kateryna Lagno

Lagno is verified by facts by other chess players

Lagno estimated that her third round match against German director general Elisabeth Paehtz deserved the prize for the most beautiful match, but the prize was awarded to the great Russian-Sist chess Alexandra Kosteniuk who defeated Tan Zhongyi in China in the third round. Kosteniuk received a Luxury Cartier watch, which costs at least $ 3,700, as a price.

Adding more context to the incident, Paehtz wrote on Facebook that “it’s my favorite loss but to understand the whole story, people should know the details”.

Paehtz informed that the price was sponsored by Inna Bazhenova, who is also Russian and sponsor of the competition. Paehtz agreed that there was a favoritism but that he was not inspired by nationality.

“What here can be interesting as facts is that Lagno has no connection with Monaco. Kosteniuk is not only a member of Monaco Chess Club; but has won many events in Monaco,” wrote Paehtz on Facebook.

“It has been the glory of Monaco’s failures for decades. However, for me, it looks like a rapid random choice of two games. I’m sure it’s not political, but rather typical for more details. In addition to the organizer of Monaco voted for Katja !!!, while Fide (Dana and Azmai) voted for Sasha. For this reason.

Kosteniuk also thought that Lagno deserved the prize but denied any political motive behind his own victory.

“If I had voted, my choice would have been the Lagno-Paehtz game. Although it was not perfect, in my opinion, it was the most spectacular. Nevertheless, I do not see any political context in the jury’s decision. I am ready to discuss as serious accusations only if evidence is provided,” Kosteniuk told Chess.com.

With Lagno currently in 13th place in the Fide Women’s Grand Prix ranking, his qualification for female candidates of Fide 2026 seems almost impossible through the Grand Prix.